Invincible
by ElleEm89
Summary: Five minutes to brain damage. One gunshot wound to the abdomen. Two functioning teammates.


**Hey guys. This is a short story based on the few weeks after Malia was killed. It's from Kono's point of view and how it affected her and Chin. I didn't like that the show basically didn't touch on this at all, so I wanted to show what it might have been like for them. Plus Chin and Kono are just awesome and I love writing about these two.**

**This story is set two weeks after Malia's death with flashbacks to just after she died, earlier in this particular day, and back when Chin and Kono were teenagers.**

**Enjoy!**

H50

_Five minutes to brain damage. That was what they had told her. Five minutes without oxygen and the human brain couldn't take anymore. Five minutes to brain damage. They estimated she had gone four._

H50

She stepped back through the doors to HQ, trying to keep her hands and the rest of her from shaking. Tried to not let the guys see just how much it was still affecting her. Tried to control her breathing and make her eyes stop darting and get the damn shaking under control. He was going to be okay. He was going to be okay. Was she?

H50

_Two weeks earlier her head spun as she walked into the M.E.'s office in a daze. She wasn't sure if it was from nearly drowning or from seeing Malia's pale, dead body lying on the slab, Chin standing over her, unmoving. When she said his name softly he turned, and pulled her into a tight hug that she returned. She tried not to look at Malia on the table behind him._

_Steve and Danny had said words to him but they hadn't registered to her. In the last twelve hours she had been kidnapped, nearly drowned, and told that Malia had died instead of her. Instead of her, when it should have been her. Because somehow the idea that she could be dead scared Kono more than dying herself._

H50

_"Chin," Kono said weakly from the hospital bed. "Malia…"_

_"Kono, listen to me," Danny had said, while Adam stood silently by the door, watching the floor. Danny sat on the side of the bed, gripping one of her hands in both of his. _

_"Is she—Malia—" There was hope in her eyes. Because surely she was. Surely Chin, since he had chosen her, had gotten to her in time. Surely they wouldn't kill her. Surely a million things that had to be true, because her spinning head would have it no other way._

_Danny had looked back at her with such sadness in his eyes that Kono knew. He gripped her hand tighter. "I'm so sorry," he managed to say. _

_The next five minutes—or maybe it had been five hours—were filled with what Kono remembered only as tears pouring from her eyes, her declarations to find Chin only to be pushed back down onto the bed by Danny and Adam, and a dark, black space that threatened to take over when she attempted to stop the shaking._

H50

"Hey, take a break," said Steve, from out of nowhere apparently, and she felt his hand on her back. He guided her to her office and stepped inside with her. "Just take a while, okay? Danny and I will start looking into it. All right?"

She nodded. "Okay," she said, trying to infuse as much strength as she could into her voice. Steve nodded, looking at her for an extra second as if trying to determine how damaged she really was, but then turned and left.

H50

_With Danny's help she was finally allowed to go and see Chin. Adam had opted to stay behind as he didn't know Chin as well as Danny did. Still wearing the same clothes that were half-soaked with the familiar scent of salty water, the two made their slow progress down the hallway. _

_She held onto Danny's arm as they slowly walked. Something suddenly occurred to her through the impossibly bright fluorescent lights and the hallway in front of them that seemed to stretch on forever. "Where's Steve?" she asked, a feeling of alarm suddenly coming over her. _

_"He had to run out of town for something, something he was going to do with Joe," said Danny. "I don't know where he went or when he'll be back. I've tried calling him, but you know McGarrett."_

_Kono nodded, eyes on the floor. She'd feel better if everyone were here again. She'd feel better if Malia…_

_There was a sudden sharp pain in one of her knees. "Whoa, careful," said Danny from somewhere off to her left, and he helped her up again. "Hey, come on, you're not ready to be up yet," he told her, and gently turned with her and guided her back to her room._

H50

Glass walls. Everywhere in this building the walls were made of glass. Even when she was alone she had no room to break down.

She could see Danny and Steve standing at the smart table just outside, discussing the men who had shot Chin. Chin, obviously, was unable to give them any information about them, and wouldn't be probably for at least another few hours.

Why wasn't she at the hospital? Come to think of it, how exactly had she gotten back here? She remembered driving to the hospital because of the construction zone along the way, but she didn't remember driving back. After a moment she vaguely remembered riding in the cramped backseat of the Camero.

Even if Chin weren't awake yet, even if… They had brought her back. Because they didn't want to leave her alone. They were worried about her.

She looked out of her office just in time to see Steve talking to Danny but motioning in her direction. Both men looked concerned.

She quickly looked back to her desk so they wouldn't know. She knew she had to get up now. She had to go out and help. Because otherwise what would they think of her? They couldn't know. No one could know.

H50

_She didn't want to leave him, but she knew he needed time with her alone. She reluctantly left the office, followed by Steve and Danny. Max nodded somberly to them on the way out. _

_As she left the room and started down the hallway, she realized her legs weren't working right anymore, and she slowed her walking until stopping right in the middle of the hallway. A sudden wave of sadness and fear washed up over her, like being out surfing when she wasn't paying attention and was caught off guard. A strangled sob escaped her mouth as her hands came up to cover her face._

_In a second she felt two pairs of hands guiding her over and sitting her on a bench. She sobbed, still covering her face, as the two pairs of hands patted her back and squeezed her shoulders. One eventually put an arm around her and she turned her face into the shoulder and cried some more. She knew she shouldn't. She knew she should stop this and get back to work. This wasn't getting them anywhere. This wasn't helping Chin._

_But she couldn't stop. A hand on the other side pushed the hair out of her face and she heard Steve say softly, "It's okay. Take all the time you need."_

_She cried harder. _

H50

_They had been standing around the table, the three of them, she, Steve, and Danny, going over their list of suspects, discussing scenarios, when Steve's phone beeped lightly at him and he answered. Kono and Danny had watched as his face went from all business to confusion to shock in mere seconds, and waited impatiently until he hung up the phone, wanting to know yet dreading what news he might have._

_"That was Duke," Steve said, sounding disbelieving. "Chin went after Andrew Mark alone and he's been shot." _

_Kono felt her blood freeze in her veins. "Shot?" Danny demanded. "How bad is it? Is he all right?"_

_"I don't know," Steve said, already walking to the door. "They just got him to the hospital, nobody knows any details yet."_

_"Oh my God," Danny said as he rushed to the door. Steve was just about to push it open when Kono ran in front of him and got through it first._

_"Hey, Kono!" Steve shouted at her as she ran down the hall. But she couldn't hear him. Not Chin. Malia had been bad enough. Not Chin._

H50

_Five minutes to brain damage. That was what they had told her. Five minutes without oxygen and the human brain couldn't take anymore. Five minutes to brain damage. They estimated she had gone four._

_Adam told her over and over again, so close. Too close. If he hadn't have found her in time, if he hadn't have heard his phone ring as Chin called him, if the CPR hadn't kicked in…but she didn't want to hear any of it. Because she was alive. And she almost died everyday she was shot at or involved in something dangerous. The almost dying didn't scare her. _

_Five minutes to brain damage. That was what they had told her. But what did four mean?_

H50

_She parked in front of the emergency doors at the hospital, barely putting the car in park before jumping out. Rushing through the doors her mouth was already saying the words, "Chin Ho Kelly," over and over, until she reached the front desk and said them again and the woman nodded at her, typing into her computer._

_Still in surgery. Multiple gunshot wounds. That's all I know._

_Kono spun on the spot. She looked around the sadly familiar setting and registered nothing. She wanted to turn around to the woman, wanted to scream that she wanted to see her cousin, wanted him to be okay, wanted everything to be okay again. But when she did turn to face her she found that nothing came out. A man rushed up to the counter with a woman whose hand was gushing blood and pushed her aside. She was jolted sideways and turned to take a step, intending to find Chin, when—_

_"Kono, here, just come here." Steve pushed her over to a small waiting area and into a chair. He stood next to her seat while Danny spoke with a nurse. After a moment he turned and said, "This way."_

_They followed him down a short maze of halls and rooms to a waiting room marked "Surgery." In surgery, Kono heard, two gunshot wounds, one to the abdomen, one to the arm. Arm not serious. Abdomen is. In surgery now._

_She was guided to another seat by Danny while Steve spoke with another nurse. He returned and sat on the other side of Kono, who was looking at the floor in front of her. _

_Malia had been killed by one gunshot wound to the abdomen. That was all it took to take down a woman who had done so much with her life and had lived and breathed for longer than Kono had. A shot that took less than half a second to do its damage had been all it took. She stared at the floor some more._

_Sitting between Steve and Danny, their three being so blatant to her, it was as obvious as a missing limb that a member of their family was not there. What in the world would she ever do without him?_

_Steve and Danny were talking, but if it was to her, she had no idea. She knew it had been a long, long time since they arrived. Malia's funeral had been on a Sunday._

_Like a dream ending, she had snapped out of her reverie as a doctor emerged from behind a nurse's station. She stood up and met him halfway across the room, Steve and Danny right next to her._

_"Family of Chin Ho Kelly?" he asked, clipboard in hand._

_"Yes," Steve and Danny said at the same time. _

_"He's stable," the doctor said, and all at once the relief was too much to take. Sharp intake of breath, hands over face, through hair, bent over to the floor, other hands keeping her from falling, doctor speaking, no way to hear anything right now. _

H50

She had to get the damn shaking under control. If she could, they wouldn't be able to tell. But every time she did manage to suppress it, the blackness would start to take over at the corners of her eyes and she could fight that even less. She took deep breaths. She thought about the ease with which she was able to surf. She thought about how in just a few days Chin would be at home.

She held her hands in fists as tight as she could for a full minute, then relaxed them and left her office.

Steve and Danny abruptly stopped talking. "Hey," Danny said. "You all right?"

"Yeah." Don't start shaking.

"He's gonna be okay," Steve offered. "And we'll find this guy, I promise."

"I know." Please don't start shaking.

"Listen, you should rest. Just sit down for a while, don't go anywhere, and we'll handle all this. Okay?" Danny looked at her somewhat pleadingly.

Her hands started first. She could feel it spreading up into her arms, deep into her chest, into her shoulders. "Yeah, okay." She started to the restroom and didn't look back, holding her ever increasingly shaking hands in fists once again.

H50

_She had begged to come along, and they finally let her. Chin promised her mother to watch her, and she had agreed. _

_Kono's surf board tied to the top of Chin's beat up car, they had driven away into the night. Malia had her window down as usual, the cool night air flowing in the car, pushing her hair back. _

_Chin drove ever carefully through the streets lit by headlights, businesses open late, traffic lights that glowed brightly in the dark. Soon, they were out of the city._

_"Nice job today, kid," Malia told her, turning to face her as they made their way down an isolated road. _

_Fifteen year old Kono grinned at her in the darkness. "Thanks."_

_"How do you think you did?" asked Chin over his shoulder._

_"Not too bad," she said, a smile settling comfortably on her face, sitting back into the seat, feeling on top of the world. _

_"Hey Malia, want to go out with me tomorrow night?" Chin asked coolly. _

_"Ooh, tomorrow? I don't know. I might already have plans."_

_"Oh really? With anyone I know?" _

_"Well, there is this one guy I might hang out with. He's pretty cute. Drives a crappy car, but he's pretty cute."_

_"Hmm. Does he surf too?"_

_"Not very well."_

_Kono laughed from the backseat while Chin grinned at Malia. _

_Chin turned onto a deserted road with sugarcane fields on either side. Malia leaned her head out of her window and let the air rush through her hair even more. From the backseat, Kono rolled down her window as well and did the same. _

_It wasn't long after until the old car began to shake slightly. It wasn't long after that that it died completely._

_Chin smacked the dashboard, then sighed and unbuckled his seat belt. "I'll see what's going on," he offered, getting out of the car and pulling up the hood._

_Kono looked out her window at the stars over the field. She wasn't scared. She should be, but she wasn't. _

_"Need any help?" Malia called out her window._

_"Maybe," came Chin's reply._

_Malia got out of the car then and went to stand with him, inspecting the car engine in the near total darkness. Kono followed._

_"It's completely dead," he said, closing the hood none too gently._

_The stillness of the night and their isolated location suddenly seemed to close in on them. They listened to the sound of the stillness around them. _

_It was broken ever so slightly by the light sound of Kono laughing. She wasn't even sure why. Nothing, and yet everything, about the situation suddenly seemed so funny she could hold it in no longer._

_Malia started up next. It was slight at first, just a gentle shaking of her shoulders, and then it started to be audible. Before long, the two girls were laughing out loud. _

_Chin shook his head at their behavior, wiped a hand over his face as he looked at the now useless car, and broke a smile. Then, he began to laugh too, until all three of them were standing in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sugarcane, staring up at the stars, their only companion a car that served more as a place to sit now than a device to travel by. _

_Chin sat down on the hood of the car and Malia joined him. He put his arm around her and she leaned into him as they continued to laugh. Kono sat on the side of the road, propping herself up with her arms, and leaned back to look at the sky as she somehow knew everything was still all right. _

H50

She splashed cold water over her face. She leaned her elbows on the counter, realized she was crying again, and returned to the sink. She splashed her face until the crying stopped.

She wanted to return to the hospital. She wanted to do anything at all to help, but she knew they wouldn't let her. But it was better for her if she were busy. Everything stayed away when she was busy.

She remembered going after Delano and his men, shooting her kidnapper and would-be murderer through the windshield of his own car. She remembered Chin, his cool, calm attitude after getting Delano. She remembered the way Steve and Danny had looked at them after that night had ended, after rushing back to the safe house to save Doris and Catherine and finding them both safe. She remembered how after Steve had hugged his mother and Catherine how he, Danny, Chin, and Kono had gathered in the driveway of the house as S.W.A.T. spread out around them. Steve and Danny had looked at Chin and Kono and their tearless faces, their resolve late into the night as the crime scene was secured and photographed and analyzed around them. She had been calm then. Upset about Malia, of course, but calm. Doing what she was supposed to do. And Chin was safe. When that was true and when she was busy, she was fine.

But on a day like today, when they had nearly lost him and when she was supposed to sit in her office with nothing to do, the shaking returned. Always the shaking, always first. Then came the slight paranoia that grew until she was certain she was being followed, certain someone she cared about was hurt, certain there was something out there beyond her control that threatened to unleash even more hell upon their lives. Five minutes to brain damage. One gunshot wound to the abdomen. Two functioning teammates.

H50

Steve and Danny had sent HPD to investigate the leads taking them to Mark. She watched them through the glass walls of her office as they made their calls. She sat back in her seat and pressed her palms together under her desk as they came in her office and sat in the two chairs in front of her desk and told her what they had done.

They asked how she was. Fine. We're going to help you two through this. I know.

"Let me see your hands," said Steve.

She tried to look at him oddly, as if not knowing why he was saying that. He just looked back at her. She brought her hands from under her desk and laid them on top of the clean, uncluttered surface. She took a deep breath. She gently stretched her fingers and let them relax. Her hands shook like crazy.

"He's going to be okay," said Danny. "He'll get through it."

"And so will you," said Steve.

Kono nodded and pulled her hands into her lap. She waited, watching them.

"Let's go see him," said Steve.

H50

Steve drove them to the hospital, in his own car for once. Neither he nor Danny said anything as Kono rolled the passenger seat window down and leaned against the door, letting the wind blow her hair back.

H50

_If she had thought to remember, she would have realized she should have been home hours ago. But she didn't. She was seventeen, it was three in the morning on a North Shore beach, and the more she and her friends drank the louder they got._

_"Hey Kalakaua, I heard you can surf in the dark."_

_"Yeah, I can. Better than you can in the daytime."_

_Their friends erupted in laughter, their faces lit by the glow of the small fire._

_"Prove it!" the chant began. "Prove it!"_

_Ready to rise to the challenge, she set her drink down only to have it spill onto the sand. She stood up unsteadily and stumbled a few feet to a board. She sat down on it. "Too drunk," she muttered. Even in her state she knew she'd likely drown out in the water right now._

_"Oh, come on! Look, she's not going to!"_

_"She can't!"_

_"Yeah, I can," she said, slurring the words ever so slightly, waving an annoyed hand at the group._

_"Do it then!" The three pushing her were guys she had met only hours before, brought by two girls of the group that she had known for years, so these guys had to be all right, didn't they? But when one grabbed her arm and made her stand up, pushing her toward the water, she felt afraid for the first time that night about anything. Another shoved a board into her arms. "Do it then," he said, and there was something mean and cold in his voice. "Prove it," said the third._

_"Back off."_

_The sudden voice was noticeably different from the group, not afflicted at all with alcohol. It was strong and made it quite clear that its owner was not backing down. The group shifted slightly when it spoke, and Kono was relieved to see Chin._

_He stood at the edge of the group, Malia several feet behind him. "Kono, come with me," he said. _

_She pushed the board roughly into the chest of the boy who had given it to her. She walked unsteadily around the fire, and Chin reached out a hand to help her. He pulled her over to him and Malia came up and put an arm around her, leading her off toward a car._

_As they were walking away several squad cars pulled up suddenly, their lights flashing. Malia quickly put Kono in the back of Chin's car and shut the door._

_A few moments later she got in and was followed by Chin. He didn't speak. He started the car and drove away from the angry yells on the beach._

_As he drove, the sudden silence had a sobering effect and Kono began to think again. "Chin?" she asked, sounding as guilty as she felt._

_He didn't answer her. Malia turned and gave her a small, strained smile before turning back in her seat. Kono waited another moment and said, "Thank you."_

_At first she thought he was ignoring her. Then, after a moment he said, "You're welcome."_

_Chin called her parents and said he had found her at a friend's house and that they had fallen asleep. He promised to drive her home later that morning._

_Malia stayed by her as she fought off the effects of far too much alcohol for someone who wasn't used to it, and Kono felt terrible that she had to do it. But every time she looked at Malia with guilt in her eyes she just gave her a small smile in return._

_When she woke up later that morning on Chin's couch they were both sitting in the chairs next to it._

H50

"Drunk on the beach," Danny commented from the backseat.

"What, you've never gotten drunk on a beach at night?" asked Steve.

"No, but I did get drunk on the rooftop of a hotel in New York one time," said Danny, his voice taking on the same tone as it did when he talked of New Jersey. "Fifteen stories up. Or maybe it just felt that way."

Kono shook her head at their conversation, but she was smiling a little now.

"So Chin saved you from the drunken teenage punks," Steve said, "and then he and Malia took care of you."

She nodded. "It's like—I thought those two could do anything, you know? I knew other things might change. I knew bad things might happen. But those two—" She stopped. Looked out the window. Was reminded of a dead car in the middle of sugarcane fields that Chin and Malia had somehow gotten to work again, enough to get them home. "It's scary when you find out someone isn't invincible."

They rode the rest of the way to the hospital in silence, the only sound being the wind through the open window.

H50

Chin was awake when they arrived. "Hey," he said, smiling from the bed.

"Hey pal," said Steve. "How're you doing?"

"Good," he said weakly, looking tired.

"That's good," Danny said. "'Cause when you're all healed up, we're gonna kill you."

Chin sighed. "I'm sorry," he said simply.

Kono watched this all and felt the uneasiness in her stomach. It was usually Steve laying there with Danny threatening to kill him, although Steve never apologized for taking risks and Kono never worried because she had seen him get hurt so often these past two years it was like it didn't affect him anymore. But when it came to Chin…when it came to Chin it was different.

He looked at her then. "Hey," she said, doing her best to smile at him. She bent down and kissed his cheek. "I'm glad you're okay."

Danny pulled a chair up for her and she sat down, looking at her hands. Steve and Danny looked at each other over her head.

"We've gotta make a quick call about the case," Steve lied, but they all knew and understood, and so smiled as he spoke.

"Be right back," said Danny.

Kono knew they wouldn't be right back. She knew they would give them as much time as they needed to talk. After a moment of silence Chin said, "I'm sorry."

"You already said that."

"Not for going after Mark on my own. Well, not just that. I must've scared you."

"Well of course you did." She could feel her temper beginning to flare up slightly.

"I know I should've called for backup."

"What were you thinking Chin? You could've been killed today! And then what? I'd have gone to my second funeral in two weeks! Do you want that?"

She stood up angrily and paced the room. Chin looked calmly back at her.

"I know things have been hard since Malia."

"Yeah. And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to remind you…"

"It's okay. Or, it will be."

She walked back over to the chair and sat down, all anger forgotten. She also noticed that her hands had stopped shaking entirely now. Five minutes to brain damage. Screw that. Damage could be done in an instant.

She reached up to the bed and grabbed his hand. It had an IV line running out of it but she held it anyway. He held her hand back.

H50

"I never thought anything would happen to the two of you. Not you guys. You were the strongest people I knew. You still are."

"We were that way. But things happen to everybody. I wish to God they didn't, but they do."

"I'm so sorry."

"So am I. But it was never your fault. You know that, right?"

"Yeah. I do. Are you…are you doing okay?"

A pause. "As okay as I can be. I will be okay."

"Promise me right now that you won't let this make you do anything dangerous like that again. Promise me that if you're sad, or angry, that you'll talk to me, or take the day off, or anything besides going after somebody on your own. You've gotta promise me that."

"I promise."

"You've gotta promise you won't leave too."

"Then you've gotta do the same. You think you worry about me? That's nothing compared to how much I worry about you. And I always will."

"So neither of us is going anywhere."

"Not if I can help it."

And though neither of them said anything about it, they both acknowledged it: the ghost in the room with them; the one whose hair they could still see being blown back by the wind through the open window; the one who always took care of those who needed her, the one standing on the beach cheering Kono on as she surfed in competitions, or just because; the one who served to remind them that no one was invincible.

The End


End file.
